Indestructible wick.



T. W. GLINES.

INDESTRUCTIBLE WICK.

APPLICATION man MAY25,1916.

Patented Dec. 5, 1916.

ll @Mtns narnia nation,

THOMAS W. GLINS, 0l? WASECA, MIINNESOTA.

INDESTRUCTBLE WECK.

.application led. May 25, 1916.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, 'lHoMAs W. GLrNEs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waseca, in the county of Waseca and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful improvements in indestructible V/licks; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionl of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide a highly efficient indestructible wick for burning combustible liquids, but more particularly, has for its Aobject the provision of such a wick of large size, usually in tubular form, for use in connection with heating and cooking stoves burning kerosene, or other heavy hydrocarbon liquid. By an indestructible wick, ll mean a Wick that will not be burned up in use.

The present invention'is in the nature of an improvement on or modification of the wick disclosed and broadly Claimed in my prior Patent 1,178,850, of date, April 11, 1916, entitled Non-combustible wicks for heating and cooking stoves.77 rllhe wick of my prior application and of the present application is made up of a plurality of sheets of non-combustible material separated by a sheet or body of carbonized combustible material. After much experience resulting from the manufacture and useof these wicks, have found that the best results can be obtained by using inner and outer sheets or layers of asbestos, as the non-combustible material, and by the use of a thick interposed sheet or body of cotton cloth or wicking, as the combustible material, which latter has been thoroughly saturated with a liquid containing finely divided mineral or non-combustible material, and has then been carbonized, s

l will first describe the wick in its most approved commercial form and will, thereafter, consider the same from its broader or more generic aspects.

ln the drawings which illustrate the saidl wick, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings: Figure l is a plan view of the wick; Fig. 2 shows the wick partly in elevation and partly in Vertical section, but with the inner asbestos or noncombustible sheet not yet applied; Fig. 3 is a vertical section .taken through the lcoin- Speccaton of' Letters Patent.

Patented Dee. 5, fait?,

Serial No. 99,768.

pleted wick on the line U3-m3 of Fig. 1; and Figs. 4l, 5 and 6 are plan views showing the three elements that make up the preferred form of the wick proper.

The numeral 1 indicates a heavy cotton tube or cylindrical sheet which is preferably a heavy -woven cotton fabric known as wicking and which, when carbonized, affords the carbonized combustible material of the wick. rllhe numerals 2 and 3 indicate, respectively, the outer and inner asbestos or non-combustible sheets of the wick, and which, primarily, are flat sheets adapted to be bent into cylindrical form.

The wick, as is customary, will be held within a perforated sheet metal cylinder or carrier t, which' has inwardly and upwardly bent clenching lips 5. ln the preferred process of manufacture of the wick, the coinbustible sheet or tube 1 is telescoped within the carrier 4- and its lips 5 are bent upward against the lower end thereof, as shown by full lines in Fig. 2. The wick is then soaked for about twenty-four hours, more or less, in a solution that contains finely divided mineral, such as silica, salt, boraX, sodium, alum, copper, ammonia, soluble glass, or potassium.

rllhe wick body 1 is preferably then turned inside out, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and the outside asbestos sheet 2, being first bent into cylindrical form, is inserted directly inside of the carrier 4, and then the said wick body 1 is turned backinto position within the said outer sheet. Then the lips 5 are slightly bent inward and the inside asbestos sheet 3,after being first bent into cylindrical form, is telescoped into the wick body 1, and its lower edge inserted between the same and the upper edges of the lips 5. Said lips are then pressed back against the said inner sheet. rllhe wick thus assembled is then preferably dipped, bodily, into the mineral containing solution, or, as an alternative, a baking varnish or enamel may be applied to the non-combustible sheets 2 and 3. rllhe wick is then put into a mold and subjected to great pressure and thereby 'pressed to the right size and to very compact form. Next, the wick is put into an oven and subjected to sufiicient heat t0 carbonize most of the combustible material. Then the wick is taken from the oven and preferably saturated with kerosene and ignited, and the combustion that then takes place will complete the Carbonization of the combustible 'tible body.

linitial step in the application :by a steel brush rotating at high speed; and

preferably then its upper edge is trimmed, by the use of an emery wheeL In the completed wie it will be noted that the non-combustible outer and inner vsheets terminate considerably short of the lower edge of the interposed carbjonized combustible sheet or body, thus leaving the lower portion ofthe latter so exposed that it has a good chance to take up the oil by capillary attraction.

When one, or more than one, sheet or layer of carbonized combustible material is used, it is of the greatest importance that they be saturated with the liquid containing, in solution, .a finely divided mineral, which, by the liquid, is carried and deposited throughout, the fabric or combus- Before carbonization, the liquid which serves asa carrier for depositing the mineral substance throughout the combustible material, must, of course, be dried out,

but this drying might be produced as an of the heat for The deposited a non-combustible maproducing the carbonization. mineral is, of course,

terial, and hence, rem'ains evenly distributed throughout the combustible material and remaining in the carbonized sheet performing several important. functions, to-wit: it increases the strength and'solidity of the carbonized materlal; it 'givesfbetter porosity thereto, increasing the capillary attraction of the wick; and, to a considerable extent, prevents vshrinking of the combustible material during carbonization, and, in a sense, takes .the place of substances removed from the wick in the carbonizing action. The treatment above described, without a nely divided mineral deposit, would leave the carbonized combust'ble material with Vhollow spaces or gaps that would' greatly decrease the capillary oil conducting capacity of the wick, and s uch carbonized sheet or body would have little or no cohesive strength.

When used in a stove, for example, carbon deposits will, in course/of time, be formed on the upper edge of the wick, but these may be readily removed by turning the wick so that it is even with the top of the metal wick tube (not shown) and then removing the carbon by a gentle use of emery paper. In this way, the Vwick is not ground down, but is simply left with a clean smooth upper edge surface which gives of a perfectly smokeless blue flame. If, in time, the wick becomes clogged, to a certain extent, with gummy substances left as deposits from the kerosene, the wick=need not be thrown away but can be restored to good condition by removing it from the stove, saturating it with oil and'then burning the oil therefrom in the open air, which treatment burns out the said gummy deposits and leaves the wick as.; good as new.

What I claim is: y

1. A wick made up of inner and outer cylindrical sheets of non-combustible material and a relatively thick porous sheet of combustible wicking interposed between said inner and outer sheets, said wickin being evenly carbonized throughout and having finely 'divided tributed therethrough.

2. A wick made up of inner and outer cylindrical sheets of asbestos and a relatively thick porous interposed fabric body of cottonwicking, thelatter being carbonizedand projecting at its lower edge below the lower edges of said asbestos sheets, and a perforatedcylindrical metal carrier surrounding said wick and having an inturned lower edge portion that embraces the demineral evenly dispending portion of said interposed wicking.

3. A wick made up of inner and outer cylindrical sheets of asbestos and a thick porous interposed fabric bodyy of cotton wicking the latter being carbonized, and proiecting at its lower edge below thelower edges of said inner and outer asbestos sheets,

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